A lot has changed in the past few years regarding the legal landscape in the adult industry. Much of this, including the exodus of many adult entertainment companies and criminal prosecutions, do not get a lot of focus in mainstream media. Anyone considering doing any work involving adult entertainment or simply interested in the legal battles occuring should take note of the Free Speech Coalition website and consider joining as a member:
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com

The FSC is the front line of defense from the surge of attacks from Ashcroft and now Gonzales. Below is an excerpt from their most recent newsletter:

DEMOCRATS TAKE CONGRESS

WASHINGTON, DC -- Democrats have handily won the House of Representatives and narrowly taken control of the Senate, in an election with enormous implications for the direction of the nation over the next two years and perhaps beyond. The elections are a great victory for civil libertarians and supporters of free expression, including the adult entertainment industry. This is true not because individual Democratic members of Congress are necessarily champions of adult entertainment nor because Republican members are necessarily foes of the industry. Social conservatives in Congress will still nip at the heels of the adult industry, and no one supposes that the change in Congress will transform Alberto Gonzales into Janet Reno. However, the leadership of the majority party has great power to determine the legislative agenda; and powerful committee chairs (and sub-committee Chairs) are key and vital factors in the progress -- or in the blocking -- of individual bills.

The likely character of judicial confirmation hearings in the Senate has also changed dramatically. The President will have much more trouble getting controversial conservative nominees for federal judgeships -- including Supreme Court nominees -- through a Senate confirmation process when Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is Chair of the Judiciary Committee and Democrats are in the majority for votes on the floor.

A good example of legislation already being reconsidered as a result of the election, as reported by CNET commentators Declan MuCullagh and Anne Broache in a report on implications of the Democratic Party victory for technology issues, is the battle over “net neutrality.” Net neutrality rules, requiring that all Internet traffic be treated the same no matter what its "source" or "destination" might be, failed (in a 11-11 tie) to pass the GOP-dominated Commerce Committee Senate this year. All the Republican members but one voted against the net neutrality amendment. Now, the outlook for including net neutrality in a much-need communications bill is dramatically improved in the Senate.

Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat set to be the next Speaker of the House, has also been a strong supporter of more Net neutrality regulations. Pelosi said in June that "without Net Neutrality, the current experience that Internet users enjoy today is in jeopardy."

Is net neutrality an important issue for adult industry? You bet it is, even if that fact has not sunk in to everyone in the adult Internet world. (There are arguments on both sides, to be sure. For an excellent synthesis that takes both sides into account see the Center for Democracy and Technology report, “Preserving the Essential Internet,” June, 2006)

Another example of a likely post-election change lies in the future of the proposals for requiring “data retention” by Internet companies, an idea that has been heavily promoted by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. (See X-Press Report, “ISP Record Retention Rules Considered,” 4/21/06) Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), it so happens, is in line to take over the chair of a key Internet and telecommunications subcommittee. In the past, Markey has complained about privacy concerns in Intel chips and tried to force websites to delete information about visitors. He attacked AOL after it disclosed user search histories and said that Hewlett-Packard's boardroom scandal means more privacy laws are necessary.

For those of you that have been asking why Hombre has been using black boxes to cover up crotch shots should read http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/FSCView.asp?coid=640 this.

I feel that this is the same reason that the video section went away.

Remember you may have not done anything wrong, but if you get charged with something it ain't going to be cheap to keep your freedom.

RG

This might seems like a stupid question, but why couldn't the server just be in another country? Offshore someplace?

That doesn't necessarily protect US from anything. Having a server in a different location still subjects all of us American members to government harrassment.

http://savetheinternet.com/=faq

Check-out my thread under Panama..."Guilty or Innocent - Pandora's Box"...similar thread.

AJ

FSC Newsletters are now posted online and available to the general public.
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/FSCViewXP.asp

These are recommended reading for adult industry news, particularly legal issues covering all forms of adult entertainment.

Here is an excerpt from the Jan. 12 newsletter
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/xpress/X2/

What Democratic Control of Congress Means for Adult Entertainment Issues
On January 3, the Members of the 110th Congress were sworn in, bringing major changes in both the face and politics of Congress. Democrats picked up 31 seats in the House of Representatives and six seats in the Senate, giving them a comfortable 25-vote margin in the House, and a slim one-vote majority in the Senate. With the majority, Democrats are now able to control the agenda of Congress. While certainly not "champions" of the adult entertainment industry, Democrats are likely to focus on issues such as minimum wage, health care, the Iraq War and corruption rather than the social values agenda preferred by the Republican leadership. Key committee chairs will shift from conservative Republicans to much more liberal Democrats. No committee leadership shift is more dramatic than the Chair of the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), an active and vocal opponent of the adult entertainment industry, will be replaced by Sen. Russ Feingold, (D-WI), a strong champion of the Constitution in general and Free Speech in particular.

The first three articles of the Jan. 19 newsletter are good reading for those interested in adult entertainment legal issues.
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/xpress/X3/

Jan. 26 is also out, but is less relevant to CH. It does have an interesting article about a porn in class conviction.
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/xpress/X4/

The following three newsletters have articles providing some current information on the regulations affecting CH's photo policy. The bad news is that a recent ruling did not go in the adult industry's favor regarding constitutionality of the law, the good news (or at least not bad) is that there probably will not be any final resolution anytime soon.
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/xpress/X13/
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/xpress/X14/
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/xpress/X15/

Some people still do not realize how significantly the current administration has changed the landscape for adult entertainment, nor have they been able to connect the dots between current political news and their relationship to these legal issues. Of note is the issue of the selective firing of US attorneys. X-Press Issue 16 has a nice summary concerning the firing of Dan Bogden for lack of pursuing obscenity prosecutions. Several points should be obvious. One is that the DOJ under Ashcroft/Gonzales have made adult industry regulation and enforcement a mugh higher priority. Two is that this higher priority has been communicated to ALL US attorneys. Three is that the attorneys have received the message on what the consequences can be for pursuing other priorities (real crime, etc...)
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/xpress/X16/

I also received a comment recently along the lines of "but I still see porn in Playboy/Penthouse". Obviously CH is not a porn site, nor do we have anywhere close to the power and resources of these major operations. In addition, and not so obvious, is that THOUSANDS of smaller online and more traditional adult entertainment companies have disappeared completely as a result of this administration's DOJ.

There was a brief piece recently in The Economist noting the decline in percentage of all "clicks" with porn sites. The discussion revolved around whether this repesents a maturing of the internet, blah blah blah. I thought they missed the point entirely by failing to note how the political actions of this Adminisitration have put adults sites of all types under pressure and have had a general chilling effect.

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9040354&CFID=2756733&CFTOKEN=46760380

Adult Friend Finder, a site/service that has had occasional mention on Club Hombre, was mentioned in the most recent FSC newsletter.

http://www.nsentertainment.net/Mailers/fsc/freespeechcoalition_mailer_07jun22.html